warnerbrosfandomcom-20200224-history
The Right Stuff (film)
| music = Bill Conti | cinematography = Caleb Deschanel | editing = | studio = The Ladd Company | distributor = Warner Bros. | released = | runtime = 192 minutes"[[Columbia Pictures|Columbia]-EMI Warner: The Right Stuff".] British Board of Film Classification, November 29, 1983, Retrieved: October 16, 2013. | country = United States | language = English | budget = $27 million | gross = $21.1 million }} The Right Stuff is a 1983 American epic historical drama film. It was adapted from Tom Wolfe's best-selling 1979 book of the same name about the Navy, Marine and Air Force test pilots who were involved in aeronautical research at Edwards Air Force Base, California, as well as the Mercury Seven, the seven military pilots who were selected to be the astronauts for Project Mercury, the first human spaceflight by the United States. The film was written and directed by Philip Kaufman and stars Ed Harris, Scott Glenn, Sam Shepard, Fred Ward, Dennis Quaid and Barbara Hershey. Levon Helm narrates, and plays Air Force test pilot Jack Ridley. The film was a box-office failure, grossing about $21 million against a $27 million budget. Despite this, it received widespread critical acclaim and eight Oscar nominations at the 56th Academy Awards, four of which it won. It holds a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 96%. In 2013 the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant"."Library of Congress announces 2013 National Film Registry selections" (Press release). Washington Post, December 18, 2013. Retrieved: December 18, 2013. Plot The film begins in 1947 at the Muroc Army Air Field in California, with civilian and military test pilots flight-testing high-speed aircraft, including the rocket-powered Bell X-1. Death is a part of their life. After privateer Slick Goodlin demands $150,000 ( ) to attempt to break the sound barrier in the X1, World War II hero Captain Chuck Yeager is given the chance. While horseback riding with his wife, Glennis, Yeager falls and breaks his ribs, an injury which inhibits his ability to lock the door on the X-1. Worried that he might not fly the secret mission, he confides in friend and fellow pilot Jack Ridley, who solves the problem by giving Yeager the stump of a broom handle to use as leverage. Though the X1 bucks like a wild bronco, and pushes him to his limit, Yeager goes supersonic and becomes an international hero - a role he is uncomfortable in. Six years later, Muroc, by then Edwards Air Force Base, remains a beehive of danger, competition, and risky behavior. Major Yeager and friendly rival Scott Crossfield repeatedly break each other's speed records. They often visit the Happy Bottom Riding Club run by pioneering aviatrix Pancho Barnes for raucous nights of drinking. Loud and vulgar, she favors the pilots at Edwards who fly the best equipment, such as Yeager and Crossfield, whom she dubs "prime", over green "pudknockers" who only dream about it. Newly arrived United States Air Force captains Gordon "Gordo" Cooper, Virgil "Gus" Grissom, and Donald "Deke" Slayton hope to prove that they have "the Right Stuff". Publicity has replaced secrecy to generate continued funding, adding further pressure to the pilots. Cooper's wife, Trudy, and other wives fear becoming widows as the ever more gripping competitions of man versus machine, man versus Nature, and man versus man grow, but cannot change their husbands' powerful ambitions and what they lead to. In 1957, the launch of the Soviet Sputnik satellite triggers a crisis for the United States government. Politicians such as Senator Lyndon B. Johnson and military leaders demand America wage and win an emerging Space Race. NASA is founded, and seeks to develop the first U.S. astronauts. In spite of his proven abilities Yeager is excluded because he lacks a college degree. Grueling physical and mental tests select an initial roster of gentlemen officers drawn from the U.S. Air Force and naval aviation. These include Alan Shepard, Wally Schirra, Scott Carpenter of the United States Navy, John Glenn from the United States Marine Corps, and Cooper, Grissom and Slayton. Dubbed the "Mercury Seven", the men immediately become national heroes. In spite of repeated launchpad and in-flight explosions of the booster rockets which will carry them, the ambitious competitors all hope to be the first in Space as part of Project Mercury. Early U.S. test flights include a chimpanzee to test G-forces and other loads upon animal life. NASA engineers view the astronauts basically similarly, as mere passengers on pre-programmed flight paths. Insulted, the men insist that the Mercury spacecraft at least have a window, a hatch with explosive bolts, and pitch-yaw-roll controls to give them some role in its piloting. However, Russia beats them into Space on April 12, 1961 with the launch of Vostok 1 carrying Yuri Gagarin. U.S. efforts redouble. Shepard is the first American to reach space on the 15-minute sub-orbital flight of Mercury-Redstone 3, on May 5, 1961. After Grissom's similar flight of Mercury-Redstone 4 on July 21, the capsule's hatch blows open upon splashdown and quickly fills with water. Grissom escapes, but the spacecraft sinks. Many accuse him of opening the hatch prematurely and panicking, a personal smirch, not on the program. Glenn, boosted on Mercury-Atlas 6, becomes the first American to orbit the Earth on February 20, 1962. He survives a possibly loose heat shield and receives a ticker-tape parade. The entire Mercury Seven and their families become celebrities, and are feted at a gigantic celebration to announce the opening of the Manned Space Center in Houston. Although test pilots at Edwards mock the Mercury program for sending "Spam in a can" into Space, they recognize the courage it takes, irrespective of flying skill. Yeager states that "it takes a special kind of man to volunteer for a suicide mission, especially when it's on national TV." While attempting to set a new altitude record at the edge of space in the new Lockheed NF-104A, Yeager's aircraft spins out of control and he is nearly killed in a high-speed ejection. Seriously burned, Yeager simply gathers up his parachute upon landing and walks to the ambulance, proving that he still has the "Right Stuff." On May 15, 1963, Cooper has a successful launch on Mercury-Atlas 9, ending the Mercury program. As the last American to fly into space alone, the narrator notes he "went higher, farther, and faster than any other American ... for a brief moment, Gordo Cooper became the greatest pilot anyone had ever seen." Cast * Fred Ward as Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, USAF * Dennis Quaid as Gordo Cooper, USAF * Ed Harris as John Glenn, USMC * Scott Glenn as Alan Shepard, USN * Sam Shepard as Chuck Yeager, Colonel, USAF * Lance Henriksen as Walter "Wally" Schirra, USN * Scott Paulin as Donald K. "Deke" Slayton, USAF * Barbara Hershey as Glennis Yeager * Veronica Cartwright as Betty Grissom * Jane Dornacker as Nurse Murch * Harry Shearer and Jeff Goldblum as NASA recruiters sent to find astronaut candidates * Kim Stanley as Pancho Barnes * Pamela Reed as Trudy Cooper * Charles Frank as Scott Carpenter, USN * Donald Moffat as U.S. Senator and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson * Levon Helm as Jack Ridley, USAF; Helm also provides voice-over at the beginning and end of the film * Mary Jo Deschanel as Annie Glenn * Scott Wilson as Scott Crossfield, civilian test pilot for North American Aviation * Kathy Baker as Louise Shepard * Mickey Crocker as Marge Slayton * Susan Kase as Rene Carpenter * Mittie Smith as Jo Schirra * Royal Dano as a minister * David Clennon as a liaison man * Scott Beach as head NASA scientist based on German immigrant Wernher von Braun * John P. Ryan as the Head of the Manned Space Program * Eric Sevareid as himself * William Russ as Slick Goodlin * Robert Beer as President Dwight D. Eisenhower * Peggy Davis as Sally Rand * John Dehner as Henry Luce * Royce Grones as the first X-1 pilot, Jack Woolams * Brigadier General Chuck Yeager, USAF (Ret) as Fred, the bartender at Pancho's saloon * Anthony Muñoz as Gonzales * David Gulpilil as aboriginal man The following appeared as themselves in archive footage: Ed Sullivan with Bill Dana (in character as José Jiménez); Yuri Gagarin and Nikita Khrushchev embracing at a review, joined by Georgi Malenkov, Nikolai Bulganin, Kliment Voroshilov, and Anastas Mikoyan; Lyndon B. Johnson; John F. Kennedy; Alan Shepard (in Kennedy footage); and James E. Webb, director of NASA during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Production In 1979, independent producers Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler outbid Universal Pictures for the movie rights to Tom Wolfe's book,Ansen, David and Katrine Ames. "A Movie with All 'The Right Stuff'." Newsweek, October 3, 1983, p. 38. hiring William Goldman to write the screenplay. At Winkler's suggestion, Goldman's adaptation focused on the astronauts, entirely ignoring Chuck Yeager.Goldman 2001, p. 254. Goldman was inspired to accept the job because he wanted to say something patriotic about America in the wake of the Iran hostage crisis. In June 1980, United Artists agreed to finance the film up to $20 million, and the producers began looking for a director. Michael Ritchie was originally attached but fell through; so did John Avildsen who, four years prior, had won an Oscar for his work under Winkler and Chartoff on the original Rocky. (The Right Stuff would have reunited Avildsen with both producers, and also with a fourth Rocky veteran, composer Bill Conti.) Goldman 2001, p 257. Ultimately, Chartoff and Winkler approached director Philip Kaufman, who agreed to make the film but did not like Goldman's script; Kaufman disliked the emphasis on patriotism, and wanted Yeager put back in the film.Goldman 2001, p. 258. Eventually, Goldman quit the project in August 1980 and United Artists pulled out. When Wolfe showed no interest in adapting his own book, Kaufman wrote a draft in eight weeks. His draft restored Yeager to the story because "if you're serious about tracing where the future — read: space travel — began, its roots lay with Yeager and the whole test pilot-subculture. Ultimately, astronautics descended from that point."Wilford, John Noble. "'The Right Stuff': From Space to Screen." The New York Times, October 16, 1983. Retrieved: December 29, 2008. After the financial failure of Heaven's Gate, the studio put The Right Stuff in turnaround. Then The Ladd Company stepped in with an estimated $17 million. Actor Ed Harris auditioned twice in 1981 for the role of John Glenn. Originally, Kaufman wanted to use a troupe of contortionists to portray the press corps, but settled on the improvisational comedy troupe Fratelli Bologna, known for its sponsorship of "St. Stupid's Day" in San Francisco.Williams, Christian. "A Story that Pledges Allegiance to Drama and Entertainment." Washington Post, October 20, 1983, A18. The director created a locust-like chatter to accompany the press corps whenever they appear, which was achieved through a sound combination of (among other things) motorized Nikon cameras and clicking beetles. Most of the film was shot in and around San Francisco between March and October 1982, with additional filming continuing into January 1983. A waterfront warehouse there was transformed into a studio. Location shooting took place primarily at the abandoned Hamilton Air Force Base north of San Francisco which was converted into a sound stage for the numerous interior sets.Farmer 1984, p. 34. No location could substitute for the distinctive Edwards Air Force Base landscape, so the entire production crew moved to the Mojave Desert to shoot the opening sequences that framed the story of the test pilots at Muroc Army Air Field, later Edwards AFB.Farmer 1984, p. 41. Additional shooting took place in California City in early 1983. During the filming of a sequence portraying Chuck Yeager's ejection from an NF-104,Note that Yeager's ejection was from the highly specialized NF-104 rocket jet, while the movie used a common unmodified F-104. stuntman Joseph Svec, a former Green Beret, was killed when his parachute failed to open.Svec's Freefall, Check-Six.com Yeager was hired as a technical consultant on the film. He took the actors flying, studied the storyboards and special effects, and pointed out the errors. To prepare for their roles, Kaufman gave the actors playing the seven astronauts an extensive videotape collection to study. The effort to make an authentic feature led to the use of many full-size aircraft, scale models and special effects to replicate the scenes at Edwards Air Force Base and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.Farmer 1983, p. 47. Special visual effects supervisor Gary Gutierrez said the first special effects were too clean for the desired "dirty, funky, early NASA look." So Gutierrez and his team started from scratch, employing unconventional techniques, like going up a hill with model airplanes on wires and fog machines to create clouds, or shooting model F-104s from a crossbow device and capturing their flight with up to four cameras. Avant garde filmmaker Jordan Belson created the background of the Earth as seen from high-flying planes and from orbiting spacecraft. Kaufman gave his five editors a list of documentary images he needed, sending them off to search for film from NASA, the Air Force, and Bell Aircraft vaults. They also discovered Russian stock footage not viewed in 30 years. During production, Kaufman met with resistance from the Ladd Company and threatened to quit several times. In December 1982, one reel of cut workprint of the film that included portions of John Glenn's flight disappeared from Kaufman's editing facility in San Francisco's Dogpatch neighborhood. The missing reel of cut workprint was never found, but was reconstructed using a black and white duplicate copy of the reel as a guide and reprinting new workprint from the original negative, which was always safely in storage at the film lab. Historical accuracy Although The Right Stuff was based on historical events and real people, as chronicled in Wolfe's book, some substantial dramatic liberties were taken. Neither Yeager's flight in the X-1 to break the sound barrier early in the film or his later, nearly fatal flight in the NF-104A were spur-of-moment, capriciously decided events, as the film seems to imply - they actually were part of the routine testing program for both aircraft. Yeager had already test-flown both aircraft a number of times previously and was very familiar with them.Young, Dr. James.. "Mach Buster." Air Force Flight Test Center History Office, 2014. Retrieved: July 14, 2014."Chuck Yeager, in his our words, regarding his experience with the NF-104." ''Check-six.com, April 23, 2014. Retrieved: July 14, 2014. Jack Ridley had actually died in 1957,"Jack Ridley." Nasa September 18, 1997. Retrieved: July 14, 2014. even though his character appears in several key scenes taking place after that, most notably including Yeager's 1963 flight of the NF-104A. The Right Stuff depicts Cooper arriving at Edwards in 1953, reminiscing with Grissom there about the two of them having supposedly flown together at the Langley Air Force Base and then hanging out with Grissom and Slayton, including all three supposedly being present at Edwards when Scott Crossfield flew at Mach 2 in November 1953."Famed aviator Scott Crossfield dies in plane crash." The Seattle Times, April 19, 2006. The film shows the three of them being recruited together there for the astronaut program in late 1957, with Grissom supposedly expressing keen interest in becoming a "star-voyager". According to their respective NASA biographies, none of the three was posted to Edwards before 1955 (Slayton in 1955Gray, Tara. "Donald K. 'Deke' Slayton". NASA. Retrieved: July 14, 2014. and Grissom and Cooper in 1956,Zornio, Mary C. Virgil Ivan 'Gus' Grissom." NASA. Retrieved: July 14, 2014.Gray, Tara. "L. Gordon Cooper, Jr." NASA. Retrieved: July 14, 2014.) and neither of the latter two had previously trained at Langley. By the time astronaut recruitment began in late 1957 after the Soviets had orbited Sputnik, Grissom had already left Edwards and returned to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, where he had served previously and was happy with his new assignment there. Grissom did not even know he was under consideration for the astronaut program until he received mysterious orders "out of the blue" to report to Washington in civilian clothing for what turned out to be a recruitment session for NASA. While the film took liberties with certain historical facts as part of "dramatic license", criticism focused on one: the portrayal of Gus Grissom panicking when his Liberty Bell 7 spacecraft sank following splashdown. Most historians, as well as engineers working for or with NASA and many of the related contractor agencies within the aerospace industry, are now convinced that the premature detonation of the spacecraft hatch's explosive bolts was caused by mechanical failure not associated with direct human error or deliberate detonation by Grissom. This determination had been made long before the film was completed. Both Schirra and Gordon Cooper were critical of The Right Stuff for its treatment of Grissom,Buckbee and Schirra 2005, p. 72.Cooper 2000, p. 33. who was killed in the Apollo 1 launch pad fire in January 1967 and thus unable to defend himself when the film was being made. However, Kaufman was closely following Tom Wolfe's book, which focused not on how or why the hatch actually blew, but how NASA engineers and some of Grissom's colleagues (and even his own wife) believed he caused the accident; much of the dialogue in this sequence was taken directly from Wolfe's prose.Wolfe 1983, chapter 10 "The Unscrewable Pooch".Ebert, Roger. "The Right Stuff" Roger Ebert.com. Retrieved: July 14, 2014. There were other inaccuracies as well, notably about the engineers who built the Mercury craft who were not German. Film models in Hutchinson, Kansas. The same museum has the flown Liberty Bell 7 spacecraft on display.]] A large number of film models were assembled for the production; for the more than 80 aircraft appearing in the film, static mock-ups and models were used as well as authentic aircraft of the period.Farmer 1983, p. 49. Lieutenant Colonel Duncan Wilmore, USAF (Ret) acted as the United States Air Force liaison to the production, beginning his role as a technical consultant in 1980 when the pre-production planning had begun. The first draft of the script in 1980 had concentrated only on the Mercury 7 but as subsequent revisions developed the treatment into more of the original story that Wolfe had envisioned, the aircraft of the late-1940s that would have been seen at Edwards AFB were required. Wilmore gathered World War II era "prop" aircraft including: * Douglas A-26 Invader * North American P-51 Mustang * North American T-6 Texan and * Boeing B-29 Superfortress The first group were mainly "set dressing" on the ramp while the Confederate Air Force (now renamed the Commemorative Air Force) B-29 "Fifi" was modified to act as the B-29 "mothership" to carry the Bell X-1 and X-1A rocket-powered record-breakers.Farmer 1983, pp. 50–51. Other "real" aircraft included the early jet fighters and trainers as well as current USAF and United States Navy examples. These flying aircraft and helicopters included: * Douglas A-4 Skyhawk * LTV A-7 Corsair II * North American F-86 Sabre * Convair F-106 Delta Dart * McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II * Sikorsky H-34 Choctaw * Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King * Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star * Northrop T-38 TalonFarmer 1983, p. 51. A number of aircraft significant to the story had to be recreated. The first was an essentially static X-1 that had to at least roll along the ground and realistically "belch flame" by a simulated rocket blast from the exhaust pipes. A series of wooden mock-up X-1s were used to depict interior shots of the cockpit, the mating up of the X-1 to a modified B-29 fuselage and bomb bay and ultimately to recreate flight in a combination of model work and live-action photography. The "follow-up" X-1A was also an all-wooden model. The U.S. Navy's Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket that Crossfield duelled with Yeager's X-1 and X-1A was recreated from a modified Hawker Hunter jet fighter. The climactic flight of Yeager in a Lockheed NF-104A was originally to be made with a modified Lockheed F-104 Starfighter but ultimately, Wilmore decided that the production had to make do with a repainted Luftwaffe F-104G, which lacks the rocket engine of the NF-104. Wooden mock-ups of the Mercury space capsules also realistically depicted the NASA spacecraft and were built from the original mold. For many of the flying sequences, scale models were produced by USFX Studios and filmed outdoors in natural sunlight against the sky. Even off-the-shelf plastic scale models were utilized for aerial scenes. The X-1, F-104 and B-29 models were built in large numbers as a number of the more than 40 scale models were destroyed in the process of filming.Farmer 1984, pp. 72–73. The blending together of miniatures, full-scale mock-ups and actual aircraft was seamlessly integrated into the live-action footage. The addition of original newsreel footage was used sparingly but to effect to provide another layer of authenticity.Farmer 1984, p. 66. Reception Box office The Right Stuff had its world premiere on October 16, 1983, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., to benefit the American Film Institute.Morganthau, Tom and Richard Manning. "Glenn Meets the Dream Machine." Newsweek, October 3, 1983, p. 36.Arnold, Gary. "The Stuff of Dreams." Washington Post, October 16, 1983, p. G1. It was given a limited release on October 21, 1983, in 229 theaters, grossing $1.6 million on its opening weekend. It went into wide release on February 17, 1984, in 627 theaters where it grossed an additional $1.6 million on that weekend. But despite this, the movie bombed at the box office with $21.1 million. The failure of this and Twice Upon a Time caused The Ladd Company to shut down. As part of the promotion for the film, Veronica Cartwright, Chuck Yeager, Gordon Cooper, Scott Glenn and Dennis Quaid appeared in 1983 at ConStellation, the 41st World Science Fiction Convention in Baltimore."1983 World Science Fiction Convention." fanac.org, 2012. Retrieved: September 5, 2012. Reviews The Right Stuff received overwhelming acclaim from critics. The film holds a 96% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 49 reviews, with an average score of 8.81/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Right Stuff packs a lot of movie into its hefty running time, spinning a colorful, fact-based story out of consistently engaging characters in the midst of epochal events." Film critic Roger Ebert named The Right Stuff best film of 1983, and wrote, "it joins a short list of recent American movies that might be called experimental epics: movies that have an ambitious reach through time and subject matter, that spend freely for locations or special effects, but that consider each scene as intently as an art film".Ebert, Roger. "'The Right Stuff'." Chicago Sun-Times, October 21, 1983. Retrieved: December 29, 2008. He later named it one of the best films of the decade and wrote, "The Right Stuff is a greater film because it is not a straightforward historical account but pulls back to chronicle the transition from Yeager and other test pilots to a mighty public relations enterprise". He later put it at #2 on his 10 best of the 1980s, behind Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull.Ebert, Roger. "'The Right Stuff': Great Movies." Chicago Sun-Times, March 16, 2002. Retrieved: December 29, 2008. Gene Siskel, Ebert's co-host of At the Movies, also named The Right Stuff the best film of 1983, and said "It's a great film, and I hope everyone sees it." Siskel also went on to include The Right Stuff at #3 on his list of the best films of the 1980s, behind Shoah and Raging Bull."At the Movies-Best of 1983." Youtube. Retrieved: May 14, 2013. In his review for Newsweek, David Ansen wrote, "When The Right Stuff takes to the skies, it can't be compared with any other movie, old or new: it's simply the most thrilling flight footage ever put on film". Gary Arnold in his review for the Washington Post, wrote, "The movie is obviously so solid and appealing that it's bound to go through the roof commercially and keep on soaring for the next year or so". In his review for The New York Times, Vincent Canby praised Shepard's performance: "Both as the character he plays and as an iconic screen presence, Mr. Shepard gives the film much well-needed heft. He is the center of gravity".Canby, Vincent. "'Right Stuff', On Astronauts." The New York Times, October 21, 1983. Retrieved: December 29, 2008 Pauline Kael wrote, "The movie has the happy, excited spirit of a fanfare, and it's astonishingly entertaining, considering what a screw-up it is".Kael, Pauline. "The Sevens". The New Yorker, October 17, 1983. Yeager said of the film: "Sam Shepard is not a real flamboyant actor, and I'm not a real flamboyant-type individual ... he played his role the way I fly airplanes". Deke Slayton said that none of the film "was all that accurate, but it was well done".Bumiller, Elisabeth and Phil McCombs. "The Premiere: A Weekend Full of American Heroes and American Hype." Washington Post, October 17, 1983, p. B1. Slayton later described the film as being "as bad as the book was good, just a joke".Slayton 1994, p. 317. Wally Schirra said, "They insulted the lovely people who talked us through the program - the NASA engineers. They made them like bumbling Germans". Scott Carpenter felt that it was a "great movie in all regards". Robert Osborne, who introduced showings of the film on Turner Classic Movies, was quite enthusiastic about the film. The cameo appearance by the real Chuck Yeager in the film was a particular "treat" which Osborne cited. The recounting of many of the legendary aspects of Yeager's life was left in place, including the naming of the X-1, "Glamorous Glennis" after his wife and his superstitious preflight ritual of asking for a stick of Beemans chewing gum from his best friend, Jack Ridley. When the film came out, the former (and future) astronaut Senator John Glenn of Ohio was running for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. In the weeks before the movie's premiere, media pundits as well as people in the Democratic Party wondered that if the film became a big success, it could give Glenn an advantage in the upcoming primaries, a speculation that eventually proved groundless. Awards and nominations The Right Stuff won four Academy Awards: for Best Sound Effects Editing (Jay Boekelheide), for Best Film Editing, for Best Original Score and for Best Sound (Mark Berger, Tom Scott, Randy Thom and David MacMillan)."The 56th Academy Awards (1984) Nominees and Winners." oscars.org. Retrieved: October 10, 2011. The film was also nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Sam Shepard), Best Art Direction (Art Direction: Geoffrey Kirkland, Richard Lawrence, W. Stewart Campbell and Peter R. Romero; Set Decoration: George R. Nelson), Best Cinematography (Caleb Deschanel) and Best Picture."'The Right Stuff'." The New York Times. Retrieved: January 1, 2009. The movie was also nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation in 1984."1984 Hugo Awards." thehugoawards.org. Retrieved: September 5, 2012. Scott Glenn was also nominated for the New York Film Critics' Award for Best Supporting Actor. Media On June 23, 2003, Warner Bros. released a two-disc DVD Special Edition that featured scene-specific commentaries with key cast and crew members, deleted scenes, three documentaries on the making of The Right Stuff including interviews with Mercury astronauts and Chuck Yeager, and a feature-length PBS documentary, John Glenn: American Hero. These extras are also included in the November 5, 2013 release of the 30th Anniversary edition, which also includes a 40-page book binding case, with the film in Blu-ray format. The extras are in standard DVD format. In addition, the British Film Institute published a book on The Right Stuff by Tom Charity in October 1997 that offered a detailed analysis and behind-the-scenes anecdotes. Soundtrack Although an album mix had been prepared by Bill Conti in 1983 (and indeed the poster contains the credit "Original Soundtrack Available On Geffen Records"), the soundtrack album release was cancelled following the film's disappointing box office.Liner notes, The Right Stuff Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, VCL 0609 1095 In 1986, Conti conducted a re-recording of selections from the score and from his music for North and South, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and released by Varèse Sarabande"The Right Stuff/North and South." AllMusic. Retrieved: July 15, 2015. The original soundtrack was released by Varèse Sarabande on September 20, 2013, prepared from the 1983 album mix (as the original masters of the complete score were lost). See also * Flight airspeed record * Test pilot Notes References Bibliography * Buckbee, Ed and Walter Schirra. [http://www.apogeebooks.com/Books/Space_Cowboys.html The Real Space Cowboys.] Burlington, Ontario: Apogee Books, 2005. . * Charity, Tom. The Right Stuff (BFI Modern Classics). London: British Film Institute, 1991. . * Conti, Bill (with London Symphony Orchestra). The Right Stuff: Symphonic Suite; North and South: Symphonic Suite. North Hollywood, California: Varèse Sarabande, 1986 (WorldCat). * Cooper, Gordon. Leap of Faith. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2000. . * Farmer, Jim. "Filming the Right Stuff." Air Classics, Part One: Vol. 19, No. 12, December 1983, Part Two: Vol. 20, No. 1, January 1984. * Glenn, John. John Glenn: A Memoir. New York: Bantam, 1999. . * Goldman, William. Which Lie Did I Tell?: More Adventures in the Screen Trade. New York: Vintage Books USA, 2001. . * Hansen, James R. First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005. . * Wolfe, Tom. The Right Stuff. New York: Bantam, 2001. . * Slayton, Deke and Michael Cassutt. Deke! U.S. Manned Space: From Mercury to the Shuttle. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 1994. . External links * * * * * Category:1983 films Category:Live-action films Category:American films Category:Warner Bros. films